Nietzschean Fairytale: The Living and the Dead
by jkd6019
Summary: Envoys from all over the Known Worlds are summoned to compete for the greatest prize in the Six Galaxies.


Nietzschean Wonder Tale: "The Living and the Dead"  
  
Collected A.F.C 297 By jkd6019 On Enkindu  
  
Classification: B-N Tale Type Index 735  
  
Once, long ago, in the great hall of the tyrant Jat Heva on the world of Zhugriva, beings of species from across the Known Worlds gathered. They had been summoned by the call that the great tyrant would bestow a prize on the victor of a contest of his choosing. His riches were beyond counting, and spanned 1,000 worlds. The efficiency and industrial might of his worlds matchless.  
  
The world beyond the tyrant's ziggurat was clean, gray, and hard. Factories criss-crossed the horizon. Inside, it was also clean, but ornate in a Spartan way, beautiful, and colossal. Of those gathered, there were Perseids, Humans, Nietzscheans, Than, and other species seldom seen. No more than 7 envoys of each kind were allowed--on account of the Than, who would have outnumbered all if given the chance.  
  
7 Prides were present--Outremer, Jaguar, Ixchel-Khmer, Orisha, Kivioq, Lesotho, and Drago-Kazov. Sher Khan Hausa of the Outremer, the greatest of all prides, strode in and surveyed the crowd. With his eyes, he honored some and quickly dimissed others. Of the dismissed was Seneca Mountain de Medici of the Kivioq. She stood next to Goethe Xia of the Drago-Kazov, both minor prides.  
  
Seneca was surprised when she saw Hausa speak to the Jaguar envoy, but only to call him "a lapdog of the Commonwealth." The Jaguars had joined the great Systems Commonwealth and given up their freedom to rule as they pleased. Seneca considered it a forward-looking move on their part.  
  
Then, Hausa made his way over to them. "I thought the Contests had weeded out a pride like yours," he said to Seneca.  
  
"We negotiated a place among the Chosen."  
  
"Typical," Hausa said. "You should go with the Jaguar. Better yet, have his child."  
  
"Well, if you're here, then I would say we are all in good company. Wouldn't you?"  
  
"Vermin live on great bears. Yet one is mightier than the other," Hausa said.  
  
"Which?" Goethe Xia said.  
  
Hausa dismissed the remark. "Dragan, do you know that these Kivioqs mate with their siblings? You should find better allies."  
  
Seneca stepped forward, eyes flashing subtly. "Only six of our people survived the journey to our homeworld. This was not a viable population. So, they cloned themselves to reproduce. Soon, we grew in power and numbers, but the other prides wouldn't have us. No matter, those six were the survivors, the best of us. They are still. Can the Outremer say the same?"  
  
"Well, I'm impressed," Hausa said with a smirk. "Abomination."  
  
"The Kivioq have survived, " Goethe said. "That is enough for the Drago-Kazov."  
  
"I see you have fallen under their influence," Hausa said. "Do Dragans make good use of little boys and girls who do with their own gender? I'm sure the Kivioq do." He laughed. "Don't answer. We'll see how worthy your genetics are soon enough."  
  
Hausa moved on, taking time to actually speak to the leading human among the crowd, the envoy from the Knights of the Order of Teutonia VI. Hausa looked at the bars on the knight's collar. "The Marshal of the Order, the third most powerful. Impressive." Hausa gave him a piece of advice: "You Teutonians have been...above average fighters. Your rise from nothing is worthy of mention, but your utopian military adventures will be the end of you--all of you." Hausa gave him a wry smile. Hausa moved on.  
  
Despite her brave words earlier, Seneca was afraid she and her people would forever be inferior.  
  
It was then that the great Jat Heva made his entrance.  
  
Jat Heva mounted his massive throne, the Pheshi's great horns arching from either side of his golden-red head. "You have come here for a prize. I have called you here from among the Six Galaxies, because I seek the most worthy of it."  
  
Before any more could be said, Sher Khan Hausa spoke. "Oh, Great Lord, let us end this now. Choose the Outremer, the Ixchel-Khmer, and the Orisha, and let us decide. A race? A duel? A battle of wits? It is for you to say. The rest are children, or worse. The Jaguar? They talk too much. They are weak. The Kivioq? Their genetics are misguided, corrupt. They are weak. Humans are confused. They are weak. The Than? A populous nation of shopkeepers. The others are not worth mentioning, backwoods barbarians." He paused. "Still, I am a bard as well as a fighter. I will immortalize all in song. Is this not best?"  
  
"Worry not," the Tyrant said. "The wise will be separated from the fools soon enough."  
  
"What is this prize?" the Than named Mantle of Courage asked.  
  
"You will see, in time." He paused. "There are only two kinds of people, and only two. This is why my worlds have prospered under me."  
  
"And why is that?" Marshal Aranda asked.  
  
"There are only two kinds of beings here--those Chosen for Life--the vibrant, disciplined, vigorous and intelligent, and the Dead--criminals, addicts, beggars, and general fools of all kinds," he said. "In this tradition you will be tested."  
  
"Eltinites are an interesting form of life I have encountered, small as the tiniest ant." In his hand was a glass container full of mote-like creatures. "Each breeding pair has 100 offspring. In the wild, some survive, others don't. They age quickly, reaching adulthood in an hour, dying in a few more. In a contained environment, however, the offspring will fight to the death, the winner consuming the lifeblood of the vanquished. This being bares a mark, an organic crown around its head."  
  
"Eltinites are intelligent creatures, but I have made them even more so. So, this will be your test. Survive an Eltinite culling and attain the Crown--in their world. The kingly being shall have the prize." He dropped the glass container on the floor. The Tyrant waved his hand and floating squid-like AIs entered the room. Jat Heva left via a door behind his throne, all the doors sealing after him. At this, the AIs began to spew gas.  
  
Those assembled looked around them, spooked, some trying the doors, most bracing for the inevitable. In moments, it seemed, Seneca found herself falling, but it was not that, but the shrinking of herself and everything on her person. Overcoming her shock, she began to move towards where the Eltinites were centered. As she was shrinking she moved herself to where she would be directly between the Eltinites and the envoys. At the size of an Eltinite, the distance would be much farther, kilometers. Better to travel now, she thought. The shrinking was over in seconds.  
  
Then she was standing on an huge bronze landscape--the floor of the room. There was an eerie silence that was broken by echoing sounds in the distance. Seneca oriented herself, found a small imperfection in the floor, and hid behind it. Now, she would wait. Undoubtedly, there would be traffic between where the envoys were and the Eltinites. Perhaps, something useful would come past her, maybe even the crowned Eltinite himself, itself, whatever.  
  
She waited. In time, an Eltinite youngling came by, barely more than a toddler, stumbling through. It had a funny half-moon scar on its forehead, probably from falling. Seneca drove down erroneous feelings of sympathy. They were not appropriate. Maybe Sher Khan was right. Maybe her people were stagnant and hadn't evolved.  
  
Either the creature would survive or it wouldn't. However, the creature caught her watching. It had excellent senses. It just stopped and stared. Silently, she cursed herself and went over to the little blue thing and gave it her gauss gun. "Protect yourself," she said.  
  
"Thank you," the creature replied in a tiny voice. It lingered, then went on its way.  
  
What a waste, she thought. What a fool I am. She took out her smaller gauss gun and went back to her hiding place. Time passed. Sounds of a great struggle between many people could be heard echoing in the distance. Let them fight each other, she thought.  
  
Sometime later, a Perseid limped by. He had been in a fight, a war. He warily waved a gauss rifle about. She thought she could take him, take the rifle. Still, she waited. It seemed unnecessary. Best to let him go on his way. Not far down the road where the Perseid had gone, she heard a commotion. Moving to see, she saw dozens of quick moving, swarming Eltinites on a group of Humans and Than who were trying to ambush the Perseid. Eltinites had been using the Perseid as bait to lure out envoys.  
  
More time passed, then more. It had to be almost an hour when a tall solitary figure came down the road. It was generally quiet now and Seneca was going to leave and move towards the Eltinite center, but would wait for the stranger to pass.  
  
The figure looked about as if searching. Seneca saw a red encrusted organic ring around the head of the figure, the Crown. What incredible fortune! The crowned head had walked into her path, without a bodyguard, nothing.  
  
She stood and readied herself to shoot when she saw a half-moon scar on the Eltinite's forehead.  
  
"Hello," he said in stately voice. "I was looking for you. I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me when I was a child. Because of that one act, I am where I am today." He spread his arms. "I just wanted to you to see that things can change."  
  
"I'm sorry," Seneca said. She shot him. As she cut the crown from his head, everything began to get bigger. They were returning to full size.  
  
Seneca found herself holding the crown, looking down at the floor below, littered with tiny Eltinite corpses, and larger ones, of humans, Nietzscheans, Perseids, and Than were not far away.  
  
The Tyrant emerged and said to Seneca, "Well done. You endured trials of compassion, wisdom, and strength. Amazing performance," he said. "As for your prize, you will be married into my family and share in the great fortune of my worlds."  
  
Seneca looked to the mighty Sher Khan Hausa, who was cut and bruised, but alive. She gazed into his eyes, then gazed at all the survivors. Something was transmitted between her and Sher Khan and all the other envoys, something that couldn't be explained in words. A mystery, disturbing, hollow. But true. She then dropped the Crown to the floor.  
  
Sher Khan stood in shock for a split second, seemingly trying to discern why a Nietzschean, even one as corrupt as her, would do such a foolish thing. In that second, the Than, Mantle of Courage, took the Crown for himself. Seneca left the place.  
  
Years passed. Mantle of Courage held the Tyrant's treasure for a time. In turn, a Perseid took it from him, and Sher Khan took it from that being in turn. With the treasure of the Tyrant's family, the Outremer grew in strength and Sher Khan became their Alpha.  
  
Seneca returned to the icy homeworld of the Kivioq. She was shunned for giving up the treasure of 1,000 worlds, deemed inferior, weak. She never explained why she did it.  
  
On her dying day, the Outremer were destroyed by a coalition of Than, Commonwealth, and lesser prides, leaving the Kivioq and other prides stronger afterwards. The Outremer had come to have more enemies than friends and had inspired more hate than fear. Gradually, Seneca's act was seen as what led to the downfall of the Outremer, a master stroke of turning power against the enemies of her pride. Because of this, Nietzscheans, first in small numbers, then in greater ones, came to choose Kivioqs as mates. The genes of the Kivioq spread throughout the Six Galaxies. Thus Little Ones, things change. 


End file.
